1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system for receiving image data provided from a server through a network using a portable terminal such as a cellular phone and outputting this image data, and particularly relates to an image forming system of map data, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, such portable terminals as cellular phones, etc. have come into socially wide use and various environmental conditions of data equipment are changing at present. There are portable equipment that have a display comprising a small LCD and an electronic mail exchanging function or an internet connecting function in addition to cellular phone communication function.
On the other hand, many web sites provide various information pages in many fields on the Internet. Many of the information are prepared by assuming that they are displayed mainly on displays of personal computers. However, there are provided less information pages for portable terminals such as cellular phones. Further, pages other than those pages for portable terminals as described above are prepared using image data comprising extremely larger volume of data than test data in many cases.
Accordingly, when any page other than those for portable terminals on the Internet is read using a portable terminal such as a cellular phone, the page is hardly displayed on a small display of a portable terminal. Moreover, as the memory capacity provided to a portable terminal is small, the memory may become insufficient only when data is received. Further, a system to charge according to volume of data received or transmitted is applied to portable terminals such as cellular phones. Accordingly, when a page data in large volume is received, the communication traffic increases, resulting in drop of communication speed or increase in communication cost.
There are considerably many map data and route guide services on the Internet. These map data and route guide services need a personal computer. Further, a time is required to print data in advance before departure or a position guide service may not be accessed to on the way even when desired. To solve such troubles, a highly functional PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and cellular phones that have the Internet access function are considered.
For example, as technologies presently available, those technologies that are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 10-178674, 9-280878, 10-9888, 10-22905, 10-103990, 2000-324542 are pointed out. In Japanese Patent Application No. 10-178674, the data of the point of departure required for the route guide can be obtained using the position data system of PHS (Personal Handy-phone System). This position data is transmitted to a server which in turn prepares route guide data and return it to PHS. However, accuracy of about 100 m only is available from the position data system of PHS and therefore, such a trouble that one alley is mistaken as a place of departure can be expected.
Further, in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-324542, it is disclosed that when a destination was input to a data service station installed on a signal pole at an intersection from a portable terminal using a most short distance optical communication function, it is possible to guide around the place wherein the station is installed.
The above-mentioned technologies are to input a destination or a point of departure using a portable terminal, inquire the data service center using a communication function and display guide data on a portable terminal.
However, a merit of a timely road guide that is obtained using a terminal carried by a user is undeniable but the map data and route guide services are required to provide such data as a map, a time table, etc. to a user and there is a limit for portable terminal that is not able to provide a large screen. To solve this problem, in Japanese Patent Application No. 10-222527, a system capable of printing data searched by a portable terminal and thus, a portable terminal is able to use by printing map data, route guide service, map and time table that are in large volume.
However, in the system disclosed in this Japanese Patent Application No. 10-222527, it is necessary to input a destination data and select it from a voluminous printer list. In addition, it is also necessary to search a destination by a cellular phone at a real time near a printer. Further, it is difficult to search several destinations while waiting a coming street-car or a bus and obtain a guide map by printing these data collectively using a printer available at a place where get off a streetcar or a bus or to input data in a preceding day and print on the day.